Another upcoming weaving opportunity for Aug is my weaving intensive. It’s a week-long class that is basically a boot camp in setting up (dressing) and using your loom. We cover planning, measuring warp, loom set-up, weaving off, and finishing techniques. It’s definitely an intensive. Although instruction is from 9 am – 4 pm, students have the option to work until 9 pm independently during open studio time.

This weaving intensive is 5-6 days, depending on whether you choose to take advantage of the 4 hours provided on Sunday 8/9. Often, students use that time to settle into their hotel, and then come over first thing Monday morning.

Instructional time is offered:

Sunday 8/9 5-9pm

Monday 8/10 9 am – 4 pm

Tues 8/11 9 am – 4 pm

Wed 8/12 9 am – 4 pm

Thurs 8/13 9 am – 4 pm

Friday 8/14 9 am – 4 pm

Materials are available in the studio; fee based on tier. Michaels is also within a half mile of the studio.

Restaurants are within walking distance of the studio as well. Registration form is in the BOX to the right on this page.

Just a post to remind everyone about the Learn to Weave in a Weekend Workshop coming up in Aug.

It looks like we have 4 spaces available all total. Registration forms are in the BOX to the right on this blog.

This is an intensive couple of days in the studio. We will plan a project, measure a warp, dress the loom, and weave off the project.

We meet from 9am – 9 pm on Sat, with a 2.5 hour break for supper or other activity. We meet from nine am Sunday until you are finished, or 5 pm at the latest. It’s basically about 17 hours of weaving. Hope to hear from you.

I had such a sweet experience today, that I wanted to share it with you. I’m on Weight Watchers, and learned that I could get a great salad at Chipotle. So I stopped at Chipotle for lunch, went through the line and got my salad.

I took my salad and drink to the condiment counter in the very busy dining area. As I placed the tray on the counter, everything on the tray fell to the floor. There was an employee tidying and organizing items on that counter, and she gently acknowledged that, “it would be alright”.

I got back in line to get another salad, and the cashier asked if I needed something (not wanting me to wait int he line again for some small thing). I told her what happened, and she slipped into the back. When she returned, she said that the restaurant would like to replace my meal. I thanked her, and found my place back in line. While waiting to order my salad, another employee came up to me and put her arm around me, asking me if I wanted to hear “something sweet”. As it turns out, someone in the dining room saw me when I dropped my tray, and called the manager, and wanted to buy a replacement lunch for me……

As you know, I have been teaching classes to young people for about 12 years. This summer is no different. This summer, I am teaching a sewing class for young people, or for parent/child(youth) to take together. The classes I’m teaching at art centers outside my own studio are: felting, sewing for YOU, sewing for your space,weaving and tie-dye.

Thus far, I have taught the felting class and am in the midst of the sewing. So here are some pictures of some of our work and some work in progress.

press before we sew

Braiding wool for handles

Wet-felting is fun!

Wonderful button idea – hand-felted

Cherri Hankins instructs student

Learning the ins and outs of our machines

Felting – Great Scarves!

First project underway – a drawstring bag

The purses were beautiful

The students had such great design ideas

I tried to sneak this purse home

Great technique, excellent design idea

stitching handle on

3 felted purses – fit for a fashion Diva

Please remember that my students read the blog, and appreciate your comments;0)

Click on any image to see a larger version. Please feel free to contact me about teaching a class that you organize.

My classes at VCU start Monday. I’m teaching felting classes. I’m also trying to get all my work done for the show this fall……SEPT! My DH brought a 4X8 in for me to use as a felting table so I can work on layouts in the house. Here are some pics of that, as well as my purse. It’s a rag purse. I love it. If you want one, they are $165. They are hand-woven of re-purposed cloth, made into strips. If you want to provide the clothing for me to weave it out of, let me know. These are great memory pieces for empty-nest moms.

Gather together your college kids old jeans and other woven clothing, or t-shirts, and I make memory fabric from them, and then functional pieces from the fabric. This is an example of a purse. I also make the purses out of other handwoven fabrics, ie. wools, cottons, etc.

Back to the felting. There are several shots of the batt being laid out. You can see the layers of rows and columns as the batt is built up. This piece will finish at about 6’X3′, so it needs to be fairly substantial. It will probably weigh about 5 lbs finished, but un-mounted. I’ll try to keep you posted.

Wow, I haven’t posted in a week. The studio has just been a busy place, and I’m getting my middle child ready to go away to college.

We will be at orientation this week/end, and then back into full swing in the studio.

I often comment on my Macomber looms, as well as the Leclerc, and the Lillstina. But, where Leclerc, has lots of information out there on their looms, Macomber is more oriented to low-tech advertising. It seems to work for them, but I want to make sure to put the information out on how to reach them. Their mailing address, and phone # are as follows:Macomber Looms PO Box 186 York, ME 03909 207-363-2808

I frequently have visitors to this website, who get here, looking for information on Macomber looms. I have only had the need to talk to the folks there once or twice in 15 years, and they were delightful, helpful, and efficient. If this is why you have visited my blog, hopefully, you will find it helpful. I don’t know if the street address is current, so I haven’t posted it.

Two students took work off the looms in the studio yesterday, one person the day before. The camera wasn’t in the studio unfortunately. One of the items that came off, was the ‘neck tie rug’. We have a student making looper rugs, and another new student coming in on Wed. nights who will be re-freshing her memory on dressing the loom, then…….we’ll see.